EU to launch new military mission in Mediterranean

2/17/2020 6:22:22 PM

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) BRUSSELS, Feb 17 (KUNA) -- European Union foreign ministers Monday reached "a Political agreement" to launch a new military mission in the Mediterranean to replace the current Operation Sophia.
"Operation Sophia is finished but we are going to launch a new operation in the Mediterranean," EU High Representative Josep Borrell told a news conference at the end of the EU foreign ministers meeting this evening.
"This new operation will have as a goal to implement the arms embargo imposed by the UN Security Council," he said, noting that the new mission will have aerial, satellite and maritime assets and not only naval assets.
The mission will have a different area of operation than Operation Sophia, which previously was covering the whole Libyan coast, Borrell said.
"If we want to secure the arms embargo, we have to concentrate our attention to the Eastern part of the Mediterranean, where the arms are coming from," he added.
The main aim of the Rome-based Operation Sophia was to prevent illegal migrants reaching Europe, but the operation stopped deploying naval ships last year in March after Italy said it would no longer take in migrants rescued at sea.
Borrell said EU ambassadors and the EU Political committee will work out the details of the new mission in the coming weeks, and a final decision will be taken by the next EU Foreign Affairs Council in March.
The EU foreign affairs chief said that "legitimate concerns" of some EU member states regarding the mission's potential impact on migration flows to Europe have been taken into consideration and added this will be "carefully monitored and reported to by the operation commander".
EU foreign ministers agreed that should migrants appear near the mission's field of operation in order to be rescued the "maritime assets will be withdrawn from the relevant area," he said.
Operation Sophia, formally the EU Naval Force Mediterranean (EU NAVFOR Med), was launched in October 2015. (end)
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